Russia claims to have destroyed 13 Ukrainian drones over Crimea

Russia claims to have destroyed 13 Ukrainian drones over Crimea, Moscow – The Moscow Times

Russia said it repelled Ukrainian drone attacks on Sunday in several parts of Crimea, outside Moscow and two border regions.

Crimea has been a Ukraine target throughout Russia’s offensive, but attacks there have intensified recently as Kiev vows to retake the Black Sea peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014.

And since Ukraine launched its counteroffensive in early June, Russia has weathered waves of drone strikes that have sporadically damaged buildings, including in the capital, Moscow.

Russian officials have downplayed its significance.

“Drones were intercepted over the western, southwestern, northwestern and eastern parts of the Crimean Peninsula, the Istria and Domodedovo districts of the Moscow region, and the Belgorod and Voronezh regions,” the Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram in summarizing Sunday’s attacks.

The drones were “thwarted,” it said.

Most of the attacks occurred early Sunday.

Late Sunday, three drones were destroyed over southwest Crimea and a single drone was destroyed over the border region of Belgorod, defense ministry updates said.

Telegram updates throughout the day showed a total of 13 drones destroyed, including nine over Crimea.

They did not say whether there were any casualties or damage in the attacks.

In its raid on Sunday, the Russian ministry claimed that production workshops at a military vehicle repair plant in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv were hit.

The buildings “in which the repair and restoration of armored vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were carried out were hit by a missile attack,” it said.

Kharkiv region governor Oleg Synegubov had earlier said in his own summary on Sunday that Russia had “launched a missile attack on the city of Kharkiv” shortly after midnight, but claimed it was a civilian entity that had been hit .

“Rockets hit the building of a civilian company. There was a fire,” he said in Telegram.